The United States is delaying adding about 100 companies deemed national security risks, including Chinese AI startup DeepSeek and memory chip company CXMT, to its trade blacklist, Reuters reported on June 16.

According to the report, the Trump administration made the decision to avoid rising tensions with China. DeepSeek and CXMT were approved last year by an interagency committee as candidates to be added to the Commerce Department’s trade restriction list.

A senior U.S. State Department official last year pointed out to Reuters that DeepSeek had supported Chinese military and intelligence operations and had tried to illegally access advanced U.S. chips through shell companies in Southeast Asia.

CXMT, China’s largest memory chip company, was designated a Chinese military company by the Pentagon during the Biden administration. Companies placed on the trade restriction list cannot receive products, software or technology from U.S. companies without a licence. Most licence requests are also denied.

The United States has not added new companies to the trade restriction list since October last year, Reuters reported, citing Philip Luck at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who said it was the longest gap in more than 10 years.

Sources said several Chinese companies that supplied components to Russian drones last year and dozens of companies that sold Nvidia chips to Chinese universities were also identified as blacklist candidates but were not added.